Published: 2021
Series: N/A
Author: Brenda Peynado
Illustrator: N/A
Genres: Short Stories, Fantasy, Fiction, Magical Realism, Speculative Fiction, Science Fiction, Anthologies, Latinx, Short Story Collection
Audience (Grade Levels): Upper high school to adults (Grades 11-12+).
Number of Stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Goodreads Link: The Rock Eaters
Triggers: School shooting, violence/death, mystical elements, sexual content, mental illness, hate crime
Review By: Sarah Williams
Publisher’s Summary:
“A story collection, in the vein of Carmen Maria Machado, Kelly Link, and Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, spanning worlds and dimensions, using strange and speculative elements to tackle issues ranging from class differences to immigration to first-generation experiences to xenophobia
What does it mean to be other? What does it mean to love in a world determined to keep us apart?
These questions murmur in the heart of each of Brenda Peynado’s strange and singular stories. Threaded with magic, transcending time and place, these stories explore what it means to cross borders and break down walls, personally and politically. In one story, suburban families perform oblations to cattlelike angels who live on their roofs, believing that their “thoughts and prayers” will protect them from the world’s violence. In another, inhabitants of an unnamed dictatorship slowly lose their own agency as pieces of their bodies go missing and, with them, the essential rights that those appendages serve. “The Great Escape” tells of an old woman who hides away in her apartment, reliving the past among beautiful objects she’s hoarded, refusing all visitors, until she disappears completely. In the title story, children begin to levitate, flying away from their parents and their home country, leading them to eat rocks in order to stay grounded.
With elements of science fiction and fantasy, fabulism and magical realism, Brenda Peynado uses her stories to reflect our flawed world, and the incredible, terrifying, and marvelous nature of humanity.” (Goodreads)
Review:
Magical realism is not normally a genre that I read, but after a portion of this text appeared on a recent AP Literature exam I decided to read the collection. I do like texts that involve thinking about our identities, what a home is, and how one finds their roots in an ever changing world. I did enjoy some of the stories in the collection, especially the story that shares a title with the collection. I had a hard time, though, believing some of the fantasy elements that were present in the text. I also found myself wanting more information about some of the characters when their particular story ended, and not really connecting to other characters. A story that really impacted me was the first one, ¨Thoughts and Prayers¨, which centers around a school shooting and its impact on some of the students in the district. I found that overall the collection was uneven, with some stories gripping me and making me think critically and some that made me want to skip ahead to another story. I could see myself using a few of them in my senior DE or AP course, but I would not assign the whole collection.
A story collection, in the vein of Carmen Maria Machado, Kelly Link, and Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, spanning worlds and dimensions, using strange and speculative elements to tackle issues ranging from class differences to immigration to first-generation experiences to xenophobia
What does it mean to be other? What does it mean to love in a world determined to keep us apart?
These questions murmur in the heart of each of Brenda Peynado’s strange and singular stories. Threaded with magic, transcending time and place, these stories explore what it means to cross borders and break down walls, personally and politically. In one story, suburban families perform oblations to cattlelike angels who live on their roofs, believing that their “thoughts and prayers” will protect them from the world’s violence. In another, inhabitants of an unnamed dictatorship slowly lose their own agency as pieces of their bodies go missing and, with them, the essential rights that those appendages serve. “The Great Escape” tells of an old woman who hides away in her apartment, reliving the past among beautiful objects she’s hoarded, refusing all visitors, until she disappears completely. In the title story, children begin to levitate, flying away from their parents and their home country, leading them to eat rocks in order to stay grounded.
With elements of science fiction and fantasy, fabulism and magical realism, Brenda Peynado uses her stories to reflect our flawed world, and the incredible, terrifying, and marvelous nature of humanity.
Classroom & Curricular Connections:
- English Language Arts (ELA) / AP Literature: This collection provides stellar material for Advanced Placement (AP) Literature or Dual Enrollment (DE) senior English courses. Individual pieces, such as the title story, offer rich opportunities for analyzing the mechanics of magical realism, surreal metaphors, and short story structures.
- Social Studies & Global Perspectives: The speculative elements directly reflect real-world issues like immigration, xenophobia, class warfare, and national dictatorships, making select stories useful for sparking conversations about political regimes and border-crossing realities.
- Social-Emotional Learning (SEL): The opening story, “Thoughts and Prayers,” provides a heavy but critical framework for exploring collective trauma, grief, and the psychological impact of gun violence and school shootings within a student body.
- Extension Activity / Library Application:
- AP Literature Textual Analysis Seminar: Since portions of Peynado’s work have appeared on real AP Literature exams, teachers can isolate specific stories like “The Rock Eaters” or “Thoughts and Prayers” for close-reading assessments, prompt writing, and analysis of fabulist motifs.
- Independent Reading / Creative Writing Prompts: Librarians can feature this collection on advanced shelves for mature high schoolers who enjoy genre-bending fiction. Students can complete an extension activity where they write their own speculative vignette using an absurd or magical element (like levitation or missing appendages) to mirror a modern socio-political issue.
- Diversity & Representation: As a Dominican American author, Brenda Peynado brings crucial Latinx representation to the speculative fiction landscape. She deliberately crafts a highly diverse cast of characters across these dimensions, providing nuanced explorations of first-generation American experiences, cultural displacement, borders, and the emotional realities of what it feels like to be labeled as “other” in a rigid society.
Readalikes:
- Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
- Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
